Registration Date: 11-27-2004
Posts: 7,657
Location: "Clowns to the left of me! Jokers to the right! Here I AM stuck in the middle with you." - Stealers Wheel

Yeah I am not sure how they produced the CDs they put out, but based on how our new version sounds, I am pretty sure they didn't always use the correct master (because the correct master has some recognizable differences.) I am absolutely sure they didn't get them mastered at the level we are. The amount kickstarter brought in really allows us to do a lot more, the mastering, manufacturing, etc of all of this material is costing a fortune.

__________________"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence." ~ Robert Frost

Well. I have lit upon "So Certain" because I think at my core I just love pop songs. Also I am looping the "Man In The Moon (Guitar Mix)". Jerry's words just leap out at me here. His voice really is quite sweet and good but before today it was hard to tell.

The tracks sound great. There's several of the archival tracks that I've heard before, but in different forms (Shirley, Goodness, primarily). Others that I've heard were suboptimal (a skipping "After All These Years" and a too-hot "Cinema Girl" on YouTube), and still more I've never heard before. Taken as a whole, the second disc is like getting almost a brand new album. Fun stuff.

Originally posted by DwDunphy
The tracks sound great. There's several of the archival tracks that I've heard before, but in different forms (Shirley, Goodness, primarily). Others that I've heard were suboptimal (a skipping "After All These Years" and a too-hot "Cinema Girl" on YouTube), and still more I've never heard before. Taken as a whole, the second disc is like getting almost a brand new album. Fun stuff.

My copy of "Man In The Moon" was an LP rip, of all things. It was cleaned up well, but still seemed a little off. So this version is head and shoulders above the one I knew.

Registration Date: 03-19-2002
Posts: 2,717
Location: MiNNeSoTa - HeRe we put salt on the Roads... Lord, Help me be Salt of the Earth - NoT Salt in the Wound. so, take most everything I SaY HeRe with a grain of Salt !

quote:

Originally posted by joey
not downloading so it will be something special when i get the hard copy..

Registration Date: 11-27-2004
Posts: 7,657
Location: "Clowns to the left of me! Jokers to the right! Here I AM stuck in the middle with you." - Stealers Wheel

Yeah its a LOT of layout work, and there is a process with several layout people involved and band member input. Proof reading, adjustments, etc, etc, etc. Waaaay slower than I like, but with so much involved in this they want to make sure everything is as perfect as possible.

__________________"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence." ~ Robert Frost

I had another thought too rolling around in my head. But I know you Audioris do not need more work now. But it would be cool to see some of the behind-the-scenes business on this project. Maybe simple things like pics of the old master tapes, maybe what was involved in "baking" them (I have an incomplete idea of that), what was involved in enhancing and restoring the audio (any analog or DSP techniques). And if Jerry needed a good shearing before any new pics were taken (sorry I had to throw that in).

Another thought- the tracks on the two disks are just so beautiful and clear and low-noise with just a wonderful dynamic range. You get everything from the little environmental sounds and studio chatter to the screaming guitar riffs and drum explosions. I don't know that I have ever heard analog music that sounded this good. Of course much of my life I have been saddled with a hodgepodge of mediocre analog formats so this is a revelation.

Registration Date: 11-27-2004
Posts: 7,657
Location: "Clowns to the left of me! Jokers to the right! Here I AM stuck in the middle with you." - Stealers Wheel

Some of the photos of tapes and whatnot will be in the book and booklet, etc. I can tell you a few things;

For the artwork of say the album itself we basically went back to the original photos and recreated the artwork so that it looks more modern quality. We are limited in that regard by the quality of the original photographs many of which were taken by Larry Norman himself. We had to create some new artwork and we've included a lot of photos taken at the time of the band tapes and other memorabilia. Tom Gulotta, Court Patton, Eric and myself have all been working on various parts of the layout and artwork. There was just so much to do. The lyrics, many of which had never been transcribed had to be proof read, which was done recently. Then there are the credits which were never fully correct or complete until now.

Edit: A good example is the back cover of HD, that photograph, we assume the original was sent by Larry to CCM for the 'Angry Young Men' issue. So an alternative had to be found and we ended up using the print that was made for Larry's original layout.

The audio; first as many tapes as we could find had to be found. Some Solid Rock had, some the band members had, some we had, some a few other people had. You have multitracks and various 'masters' in varying quality and levels of completion. We've digitally transferred as much as possible which allows us to pick the best sounding versions, and in some cases even remix a track or two. Typically we use studios that specialize in transferring archival tapes to digital. Some people have heard some of the 10 biggies before, there are tapes floating around out there, but you have never heard them like this. We had everything digitally mastered by a professional.

The process of all of this is what makes it take a while. Charles Norman has dug through the Solid Rock archives (of which I am sure there is a ton) and continued sending us stuff every few weeks as he would uncover a new trove, meanwhile we've been working on layout and lyrics and getting stuff mixed and mastered. We've also contacted several people associated with the band to help us find lost tapes and things. Band members have raided their stash to help with finding better sounding versions of songs.

There are a couple tapes somewhere out there from the period that still have not been found, not anything that will effect this project but would still be great to find. An example is Mark Heard professionally recorded DA at Madam Wong's in LA. We'd love to find that, but nobody seems to know whose storage it is in. (Similarly someone has a multitrack tape of DA live with an orchestra performing the Shotgun Angel era music.)

We've also tried to unravel the timeline of events with Horrendous Disc, what went on from the time it was recorded for Maranatha in 1978 until it's release on Solid Rock in 1981. Eric has put all of that together to include in the book. When the songs were recorded, the bands plans, when they left one label and signed with a new one, the various masters that were made and for what reason, etc.

Edit: It seems as though (and I assume this may be the case with a lot of labels) DA would tell what they wanted for say the album cover and whoever was in charge would say ok, I'll do that but I will add these elements or change this or that. So you have bits and pieces of things the band wanted and also what they didn't want all mixed together. Same thing with the audio and other parts of the layout. Some other things just don't seem to make any sense at all.

__________________"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence." ~ Robert Frost

An example is Mark Heard professionally recorded DA at Madam Wong's in LA. We'd love to find that, but nobody seems to know whose storage it is in. (Similarly someone has a multitrack tape of DA live with an orchestra performing the Shotgun Angel era music.)

Wow. This is amazing. I hope both tapes are found. We gotta get the search parties going.

__________________da

This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by jyroflux: 02-07-2018 14:21.